This will rarely be an issue in life but I used to have problems using a hand drill as you have to go backwards instead of forwards. I also can't use a fork and a spoon when eating pasta as I can't use either with my right hand. Old tin openers were a problem too.

I'm 40 and a leftie. it can be a pain as the world is made for right handers, but you learn to cope fine. my view...don't get anything much 'special' for a leftie, let the child learn to use it /cope rightie, however there are no hard and fast rules. I say learn to cope as often the special leftie tool isn't around.

however, be understanding and recognize that handwriting, eating with knife and fork and various other simple things you take for granted will seem difficult to a leftie and take a wee bit longer to pick up. we all get their in the end though.

I found / find writing to be the hardest part of being a leftie. Other than that you learn to cope. Lets face it, it's not really a problem like being vegetarian or ginger.

I think that with most lefties, I'm a little more ambidextrous than most right-handed people. For example, I use a right handed mouse, brilliant for using a PC with a drawing pad and mouse at the same time. I can eat right-handedly and catch / throw with either hand.

A 5 year old boy with very strict Muslim parents was left handed. They came in after school and asked if their son could be encouraged / forced to use his right hand. It was explained to them why not but all the time, I was thinking about how he was very, very clearly gay and the father would forget all about the leftiness in a few years time.

thing I find the worst is posidrive screws that need to be done TIGHT. try it. I'm sure its easier to drive and twist a rh thread wit the right hand. however I guess I am able to remove tight screws more easily.

Never knew that fact about knives, thanks for that, years of wonky bread slices could be at an end.

I would dearly love feedback on this, please keep me posted.

Can remember back in the day, getting so frustrated that the fire button was on the left, most of the time the fire did not seem to work properly if you were left handed, my excuse for losing so often

I use old-school joysticks with my right hand on the stick and the left frobbing the fire button, but whether that's instinct or learned behaviour I honestly couldn't say. Though, a) arcade cabs are configured the other way around, and b) I guarantee my left thumb's rate of fire will out-shoot anyone ever.

Being naturally left handed has totally screwed my co-ordination mojo. Not cos of anything I have done, but because of how I was treated as a kid in schools. and I'm only 40. I remember clear as day in early primary school being told off for drawing my alphabet letters left handed in pencil. always being told off for that. And then being made to look like an idiot cos I couldn't match the right hand kids with my right hand, despite being a perfectionist with my left hand! WTF!! I felt so left out and wrong and all the other little kids were right. Cos someone said so, and I was a tiny kid. SO now I write/paint'draw right handed. Throw/Kick left handed. Play tennis left handed. Play cricket/golf right handed. I remember going to a new school and we were all lined up to do long jump (something I had never done before) and I just lined up in the big line. totally fecked it up, got laughed at as the new kid. Went to the other line, and aced it, and got really good.. My experience in education has totally buggered my natural born left handedness up. Which makes me a bit sad and angry thinking about it and I wouldn't be surprised if it has contributed to my feelings of always being a bit of an outsider/underdog/low-self esteem and why I don't trust authority figures.

There are plenty of left handed guitarists who play right handed guitars, including my own son, who is pretty handy on the guitar. When learning guitar at first, everything feels totally foreign, so it doesn't matter a tot which hand is doing what. There is a lot to be said for the dominant hand (left in your kids case) doing the fretting work.

I like your thoughts on NOT using left handed equipment. I don’t want to necessary make life easier from him, just want him to be able to get on in life. So I will not let the wife buy left handed scissors and in the important art of cake eating ( ), left handed forks will not be a problem, he takes after his mother’s side of the family and will probably use a shovel.

Interest to see so many ambidextrous or semi ambidextrous and the different combinations that throws up.

I'll keep a close eye on the dyslexia… (although never formally diagnosed, I’m sure I suffer from it to a degree … it’s a PITA)

Interesting to see I'm not the only freak who writes left handed, but uses scissors righty, plays racquet sports righty, right footed etc.
My son is completely left handed and really suffers with smudging his writing.
I remember drawing a very artistic picture with charcoal at school, really detailed... By the time I'd got to the right side of the paper I had completely wiped the whole thing... Taught me to draw right to left that did!

I write left handed, but do most other things right handed. I'm quite a good juggler, but I can only do juggling 3 balls in one hand (quite a hard thing to do) in my right hand, and am very right dominant doing tricks. I play tennis right handed.

I am convinced that the writing is entirely because I was an arsey bugger at school and was messing with their minds. I used to use left handed scissors in those days too, although that might have been more to do with the joy of watching other people struggle to use them.

Oh, I use fork in left hand for most eating even if there isn't any knife though (things like curries etc. where you don't need a knife), but then a lot of righties do that too.

The ruler thing is really minor and makes virtually no difference. And, like scissors, it's a bit annoying once you're used to standard ones.

I think the basic idea is that, when measuring a line on a piece of paper, you'd 'naturally' line the ruler up underneath the line and the numbers would start on the top edge of the ruler, by your thumb - as this is the easiest way to manipulate the ruler.

EDIT: The main advantage is that when you come to draw a line, it's more natural for a left-hander to pull the pen from left to right, easier to draw an accurately-measured line and your hand doesn't obscure the markings.

Thus a left-handed one is marked up in reverse.

It does actually feel a little more natural but, as I said, it's really minor and pretty pointless!

got a presumably RH ruler here, hold with my left draw a 12cm line, OK, now hold with my right draw a 12cm line. Admittedly if you want to drag the pencil instead of pushing it you need to start at 12 and go down to 0, doesn't seem much of a disadvantage. Sorry still not seeing it.

<edit>

It does actually feel a little more natural but, as I said, it's really minor and pretty pointless!

i'm a lefty and the only thing i do righty is play golf (although i'm total mince). For me, the hardest thing about being a lefty, was having to 'reverse' everything when being taught how to do something. Also, when i served a craft apprenticeship, a lot of the machines and power tools were set up for righties.

On the positive side being a natural lefty has always been an advantage at sports such as squash, football and taekwondo as rightys have little practice at defending against a natural lefty.

There are plenty of left handed guitarists who play right handed guitars, including my own son, who is pretty handy on the guitar. When learning guitar at first, everything feels totally foreign, so it doesn't matter a tot which hand is doing what. There is a lot to be said for the dominant hand (left in your kids case) doing the fretting work.

The only reason you'd not buy a left handed guitar is if you were too tight for the initial outlay. Sorry, but its better for the dominant hand to be doing one thing or the other. So either the fundamental design of the guitar is wrong, or you are.